For some reason i cannot ride backwards on my uni. i can’t balance pedaling backwards. Any ideas?
Give it 1500 more attempts, then give up. (You’ll probably get it around try # 850)
Short answer: practice, practice, practice.
It helps to have loose hips. Do some hoola moves before the attempt to limber up. It might help to keep the wheel under you. The mass of your torso can move smoothly along and you’ll hoola your unicycle back under you when necessary. The violent corrections become delicate imperceptible corrections with time and practice.
Wear a helmet and wrist guards when learning new stunts. (Especially when you’re not really looking where you’re riding all the time)
thanx
thanx i’ll try that.
you’ll find (looks like you found out already!) that knowing how to ride forwards doesn’t really help much when it comes to learning to ride backwards
a good method I used (after reading about it here) was:
ride forwards. slow to a stop. one pedal rotation backwards then continue forwards again. then two rotations, then 3, etc…
at this point, you can either start learning backwards, or idling, although completely different, they both kinda help with each other in terms of new balance/counter balance appreciation.
also, when you start to be able to ride backwards, it’s handy knowing you are in a completely safe unobstructed place so you don’t have to worry about looking behind you until you get better, that’s a whole new skill by itself!
Good luck
Oh yeah…if you start to fall backwards, just step back off the uni, don’t try to pedal out of it!
The not-so-secret secret to normal riding is to keep your weight firmly on the seat. When riding backwards, even after you have realized this secret while riding forwards, it is typical to forget this. You will feel less secure keeping your weight firmly on the seat when riding backwards, but it will help immensely. I could not go any distance backwards until I realized this.
Riding backward is one of the more challenging things you’ll learn IMHO. Don’t assume that because you can ride forward that backwards should come quickly. Learning backwards is like learning to unicycle all over again so remember how long it took you when you were first learning and practice, practice, practice…
ditto JJuggle
I’m learning also , my best at this point is 4 rotations backwards.
I find that mounting into a still stand/ learning to idle helps me re-learn my center after non-riding. Riding forward and stopping / learning to idle for about a half hour / 45 minutes, warms me up for my learning backward attempts. This also reminds me of how to ‘dismount/fall’ in an awkward or reverse motion.
Keep you wieght in the seat and relax waistline muscles, while concentrating on tension with opposing thigh muscles when going backwards.
I’m see progress every time I use my method.
And, once you get about 3 or 4 rotations (like where I am now), you find that it’s a very unique ‘feeling’. (fun too !)
I found the opposite to be true. I just skipped practicing backwards. Now I can do it. Never had to practice it.
the same was kind of true for me as well… but not exactly. Every time I went on a uniride, I sort of halfheartedly tried to go backwards. I was just screwing around though, didn’t really actually try. and eventually I did try, and it turns out that I could just do it. crazy! probably from all those times screwing around not really trying to do it, I actually was trying to do it, I just didn’t know it… hmm…
interesting
Wierd, I wonder why that is. 
i can ride backwards probably like 20 revs consistently. never really practiced it. it jsut came to me after a while.
jon
Here’s a thread with some good tips for learning to ride backwards: How do I learn to ride backwards? I like the super-idle learning method described in that thread.
My challenge now is to learn how to turn smoothly in a complete circle and to do it equally well in both directions. I can ride backwards in a complete circle but it’s very jerky. I need to learn how to do it smoothly. I hardly ever practice the turning so I’ve never gotten good at it.
thanx
thank you:D
Likewise. It’s more of a pentagon.